Someone's in the Attic
by TotalCSIfan
Summary: "Oh God it's happening again." Nick thought as he raced home. Please read and review! Thank you!


**Someone's in the Attic**

Jackie had just gone through a bunch of junk that was around the house. When she was finally finished going through everything she boxed the stuff up and carried the boxes to the attic. The staircase to the attic was only accessible by pulling on a string, when the string was pulled the staircase to the attic came down. When Nick and Jackie had bought the house they had fully intended to finish the attic, they had even called in a contractor once. The contractor had said that he could put three decent sized bedrooms and a bathroom up there, and that he could also put in a regular staircase, one that did not need to be pulled down, the price he quoted them was fairly cheap too. However, Nick and Jackie both had been extremely busy with their jobs at the time and so it got put on the back burner, and it's not like they needed the extra rooms anyway, they had a four bedroom house. After the kids were born time was even more scarce and so needless to say the attic still remains unfinished, which isn't as bad as one might think because there is tons of room for storage up there, something a growing family can never have enough of.

"There, last box." Jackie said contently to herself as she climbed down the attic stairs for the last time.

She was just about to close the staircase when their 5 month old baby boy started to cry.

"I'm coming Houston." Jackie called as she turned and headed into the baby's nursery, leaving the staircase down for now.

The day went on and she forgot about the staircase. She made the baby's bottle, and cut up a snack for their daughter Jasmine as well. She had just set Jasmine down in a kitchen chair so she could eat her snack when the front door opened.

"Hi Nicky, how was your workout, and what took you so long, you've been gone for 3 hours."

"Hi babe" he said as he came up behind her and kissed her on the cheek.

"I went for a beer with Greg after my workout." He said.

She smiled and nodded in understanding as she sat down in the kitchen chair next to Jasmine so she could feed Houston his bottle.

"Hi dada" Jasmine said as she held up a squishy piece of banana so Nick could see it.

"Hi kiddo, what do you have there?" He asked.

"Nana" she said.

"A banana, is it good?"

Jasmine shook her little head up and down.

"That's good." Nick said as he smiled at his little girl.

Nick noticed the baby was staring at him.

"Hi buddy" Nick said as he ran his hand gently over the baby's head before taking a seat next to Jackie.

The rest of the day went by fast and soon it was time to get the kids ready for bed. Jackie gave Jasmine a bath while Nick bathed the baby. Then Jackie read Jasmine a bedtime story and tucked her into bed. Soon both kids were asleep so like usual Nick wanted to get a few hours sleep before he had to get up for his graveyard shift at the crime lab. It seemed like Nick had just laid down when his alarm started going off. He got up and got ready to go to work.

"Bye Nicky, have a goodnight at work, be careful, I love you." Jackie said as Nick leaned over and gave her a kiss goodbye.

After Nick had left for work she fell back asleep.

A few hours later she was awoken by a terrifying sound. She heard footsteps above her! Someone was in the attic. At first she thought she was mistaken or just plain losing her mind but then she heard them again, and this time the footsteps were unmistakable. Jackie flew out of bed, grabbed her cell phone from her nightstand, and then raced into Jasmine's room, since her room was the closest to the master bedroom. Jasmine was safely in her bed sleeping. Jackie quickly scooped her up and then ran to the baby's room. Jackie was very relieved to also she him sleeping peacefully in his crib. Her relief didn't last long though because she heard the footsteps again. She also grabbed the baby and then ran to the bathroom. She locked the door and hid in the shower with both of her children.

"Hi mama" Jasmine said sleepily looking up at her.

"Shhh" Jackie said as she gently covered the little girl's mouth.

She did not want whoever was up in the attic to know anyone was home. She dialed 911.

"911 what is your emergency?" "There is someone in our house, send someone here quick." Jackie whispered.

Nobody responded.

"Hello?" Jackie asked she was now in a complete panic. Still there was no one on the other end of the line, the call had been dropped.

"Oh God, what do I do now?" she thought to herself.

With shaking fingers she dialed Nick's number

"Stokes"

"Nick, where are you?" Jackie whispered.

"I'm at a crime scene, what's wrong?" Nick could tell there was something wrong immediately. First of all Jackie was whispering and second of all her voice was trembling.

"Nick, get home now, there is someone in the attic."

Nick felt a knot form in his stomach.

"Be right there" he said and without saying one word to Russell, he sprinted to his truck.

He had driven his personal truck to the scene because Russell had gotten to the scene before him because Sara had asked Nick for some help with her case.

Jackie hung up the phone and stayed as quiet as she could in the shower. Jackie was horrified, she knew Nick had had a similar thing happen to him years earlier, she hadn't known him then but from what Nick had told her it had really affected him. Who wouldn't be affected by something like that? She worried that his stalker had gotten out of prison and had come back. She didn't know how Nick's stalker would know where he lived because he lived on the opposite side of town as he did back then but she guessed if someone wanted to find out where someone lived bad enough that could easily be accomplished.

"Hurry Nicky" Jackie said silently to herself.

She was terrified, not for her safety but her children's safety. Jackie was not going to let anyone hurt her children, or at the very least she would die trying to protect them.

Nick's scene was 20 minutes away from his house. He was driving faster then he ever had in his life. Who was up in the attic? Had Nigel got out or escaped from prison, and was now waiting to finish him off? Was some other psychopath up in his attic waiting to kill him and his family?

"Nobody is going to hurt my family" he said out loud as he pressed his foot even harder on the gas pedal.

With how fast he was going he cut that twenty minute drive in half. He pulled into the driveway with reckless abandon. He pulled his gun from its holster the second he got out of his truck. As he raced up to the front door he looked around, nothing outside seemed disturbed or out of place. He didn't have a battering ram so he tried to kick in the door, it didn't budge so he had no choice but to use his key. He got into the house, he too immediately heard the footsteps in the attic. He hurriedly raced up the attic stairs. From the upstairs bathroom Jackie heard the front door open, she knew it was Nick because he used his key. She let out a small sigh of relief.

"What the hell are you doing up here?" she heard a voice say. Jackie recognized the voice immediately as her husband's. Jackie braced for the sound of gunfire and she silently prayed that if and when she heard that sound, Nick would be the one firing the bullet, not the one receiving it. Jackie wanted to rush to her husband's aide but she knew she had to stay with the kids. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. She didn't respond at first.

"Jackie, are you in there? You can come out now, it's alright." Nick called.

Jackie breathed a huge sigh of relief as she stood up and got out of the shower before helping Jasmine out as well so she wouldn't fall. Then Jackie quickly unlocked and opened the bathroom door.

"Nicky are you alright?" she asked as she wrapped her arm around him.

"I'm fine." Nick said as he hugged her back, he noticed immediately that she was shaking uncontrollably. "And I found our stalker."

"Who was it?" Jackie asked in a weak voice, she was almost too afraid to hear the answer.

Nick grinned as he nodded at the floor. Jackie looked down and saw Chief, the family's dog sitting next to Nick.

"It…it…was….Chief?" Jackie stammered.

"Yep" Nick said.

"Oh thank God. He must have climbed up the attic stairs tonight, I forgot until I heard the footsteps that I never closed the attic staircase." Jackie said as she tried to regain her composure, and then she realized something. "Oh no, I made you leave a crime scene for absolutely nothing, I'm so sorry, I probably got you fired, but honestly, I thought there was a crazed mad man that was going to kill all of us."

"Don't worry about it, when I first entered the house I heard the footsteps too and they sounded like human footsteps to me as well so I don't blame you for freaking out."

He wrapped his arm around her in a comforting embrace, although she was still shaking she had calmed down somewhat.

"It's alright now." He whispered in his sweet southern drawl.

After she stopped shaking he helped her get the kids settled back into bed.

After both of the children were once again sound asleep he grabbed her gently by the shoulders.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She assured her.

"You sure?"

"Yes, thanks for coming to our rescue." She said.

"Hey if any mad man was going to hurt you guys he was going to have to get through me first." He said with a smile.

"Did you mean mad man or mad dog?" she asked with a grin.

He laughed and said "Either one."

She smiled at him. "If you're sure you're alright I'm going to head back to work, but if you don't want me to go, I won't." he said honestly.

"I'm ok." She said with an appreciative look in her eyes.

Nick nodded and kissed the top of her head. He then turned and headed down the stairs. He went over to the door and when his hand was on the doorknob he turned back around to look at her.

"I love you." He said and the look on his face proved he meant it.

"I love you too." She answered.

He gave her one last smile before he turned and headed out the door.

Jackie went to the window to watch him leave and after his truck was out of sight she went back to bed. As she lay in bed she couldn't help but have goose bumps because this night had proved to her how much she and the children meant to Nick, he had faced one of his biggest demons, and he did so without a moment's hesitation to protect her and the kids at any cost. His own safety hadn't even come into play and to Jackie, that was true love.


End file.
